Be On the Lookout For: Missing Indiana Student

August 4, 2011

By JULIE CAIFA

Have you seen this girl? Twenty-year old Lauren Spierer, from Scarsdale, N.Y, is a student at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Lauren is 4'11" and has blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen early in the morning on June 3, after a night spent partying with friends, wearing a white tank top with a light-colored shirt and black pants.

A request for a search warrant was made by the FBI on June 16 to search the Sycamore Ridge Landfill, where trash from the Bloomington area gets dumped, in connection with the case of the missing student. The landfill, near Terre Haute, is about 55-miles from where Spierer was last seen in the town of Bloomington. It's still unclear when the search will take place but it appears to be the next big step in the investigation.

Robert Lowery, a director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has been aiding police in the search for Spierer, spoke to The Journal News - a Westchester newspaper - on why the landfill hasn't been searched yet. He says landfill searches require so much manpower and include so many hazards that they are never undertaken casually and become more difficult as time elapses. Once investigators identify the area they plan to search, they typically have to haul away the trash, spread it out and sift through it by hand.

The Sycamore Ridge Landfill's owners released a statement saying "We are working with the FBI regarding a search of the Sycamore Ridge Landfill…we are cooperating in any way we can."

On the night Spierer vanished, she and Corey Rossman , friend and fellow Indiana student, were at a local sports bar, Kilroy's, around 1:45 am on June 3. The two left shortly after, Spierer leaving her shoes and cell phone behind. From there they walked together a short distance to Spierer's apartment building, Smallwood Plaza. Surveillance video shows them walking in the building at 2:27 a.m.

According to Rossman's laywer, Carl Salzmann, Rossman says he was punched in the face by someone within the building before they made it to Lauren's room. As a result he says he is unable to recall any details that led immediately up to the alleged altercation or the events of his and Lauren's return to his apartment after. He says he is unable to remember anything except waking up the morning after.

Surveillance footage handed over to the police from the apartment building where Lauren lives, has not yet been released to the public. But according to the Journal News, an anonymous source who has recently seen the video reported that Spierer is seen leaving her building the morning she went missing, virtually incapacitated. According to the source, on the video, she is seen stumbling out of her elevator, falling against a wall and helped to her feet by a man who led her out of the building. Bloomington police declined to comment on the video.

Mike Beth, Corey Rossman's roomate, stated to law enforcement that he had been home - and sober- when Lauren and Rossman arrived, close to 3:00 a.m. Beth says he then put Rossman to bed. He says Spierer left their apartment approximately an hour later.

Jay Rosenbaum, another friend of Spierer's who is the last known person to have seen her, says Lauren then came to his apartment, only a couple doors down from Beth's and Rossman's. Rosenbaum says he attempted to get Spierer to stay, but she refused, and he last saw her at the corner of 11th and College Street around 4:30 a.m.

Even though mass searches have been suspended, Spierer's parents remain in Indiana and say they will not stop searching until their daughter is found. The family recently sent out a Tweet on the "News On Lauren S" page that reads, "Everywhere you go, for the rest of your life, it will follow you. In your happiest moments, it will haunt you. Do the right thing. 800-CRIME-TV."